Date:         Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:58:36 -0800
Reply-To:     cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "David L. Cassell" <cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: How long does it take to learn SAS,
              and how good is the Learning Edition
In-Reply-To:  <1103139095.161067.281420@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

express_myself_01@YAHOO.COM wrote:
> A friend of mine wants to learn SAS.  For those of you who have
learned
> it recently, how long did it take to know a reasonable amount, and
what
> resources did you use?
>
> Did anyone learn via the Learning Edition?
>
> Please give me ideas on what has helped you learn SAS.
>
> I may be helping him to learn SAS, but it has been a long time since I
> first learned it.

I learned the things I needed to get started in SAS in a one-credit-hour
course in one term.  Of course, that list of 'things' was pretty
limited.
That course was *decades* ago.  Some time around the end of the Mesozoic
Era.  :-)  (And I had already been using SAS in statistical applications
for a couple years when I took the course, so it was easy for me.)

Really, it depends on what one wants to learn.  Take "The Little SAS
Book"
as a teaching tool.  Ten chapters, and yet covering enough to get most
people
going in SAS.  It won't help you if what you need is a theoretical
introduction
to PROC MIXED and PROC GAM.  It won't help if you want to start out with
SAS/IML or SAS/ETS or SAS/IntrNet.  But it should be enough to get your
friend
going.  And you can try things out in SAS Learning Edition as you go.

BTW, that one-credit-hour course didn't teach me all that much.  After
using
SAS for more than twenty years, I still learn new things.  SAS-L is an
excellent
tool for that.

David
--
David Cassell, CSC
Cassell.David@epa.gov
Senior computing specialist
mathematical statistician